It is not possible, in principle, to write code faster than handwritten and
carefully optimized machine language. Therefore, every advance in software
engineering since the invention of the computer itself has done nothing to
add to this basic speed. Language designers strive to add abstraction, which
makes it possible for human beings to write more complex software, while
preserving the underlying speed of machine language. FORTRAN does this best,
still; then C; then C++. C is the least abstract, then FORTRAN, then C++.
The reason FORTRAN is still best at raw speed after all this time is that it
was designed by good engineers specifically to perform numerical operations,
especially matrix operations, in a way very close to machine language.

-----Original Message-----
From: Job M. van Zuijlen 
To: Ed Hall 
Cc: Paul Barton-Davis ; csound@maths.ex.ac.uk

Date: Thursday, May 20, 1999 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: realtime polyphony


>This is an interesting exchange.  Your final remark makes one wonder how
>much improvement there has been in software development/techniques as
>far as speed is concerned.
>
>Job van Zuijlen
>
>Ed Hall wrote:
>>
>> Anyhow, it's interesting to note that Csound uses the very techniques
>> that sped it up this little benchmark program over an order of magnitude.
>> Whether by chance or design, 20-year-old implementation choices still
seem
>> to be the right ones from a performance perspective.
>>
>>                 -Ed